District Oran

Leadership

The mining families of Oran are infamous for their infighting and near constant internal assaults on one another that border on clan feuds and petty civil war. The few prosperous families are those with the largest standing armies of tanks, infantry and battlefield Mechs, although the loyalty of those forces can and are often bought by the highest bidder and as even relatively stable families are constantly looking for mercenaries from month to month and year to year.

Culture

Trading and mining is a way of life for any son of Oran. Those born into low-born families have a long, hard life of backbreaking mining to look forward to, unless they become skilled with a weapon and then earn enough to buy their way out of servitude only to become a bodyguard to a more affluent family or clan holding. Unfortunately, for every one that escapes the mines and earns their fortune, two hundred more die with a bullet in their bellies and a thousand more die in servitude in the mines.

Economy

Ore and the refined products made from the said ore are valuable commodities across Techniconica, and a greater percentage of that ore comes from Oran due to its mineral rich surroundings and a culture of hard graft and determined mining traditions.

Those items that cannot be produced within Oran's walls, it can be bought from the other Districts through various trade pacts with a few trading houses and enterprising merchants making their way across the wastes.

Law Enforcement

Mining press-gangs are the de-facto method of punishment for those found by the city officials to be breaking any number of minor and major offences. This indentured servitude ranges from a few days up to several decades for the worse capital crimes. Those that are unwilling or simply unable to work are simply starved to death as rations are withdrawn from those whom fail to meet quotas.

The enforcers who oversee the whole justice Oranian system are as corrupt as they come, with high power individuals able to flaunt the laws by paying off their debts or by being too powerful to challenge.

Industrial Infrastructure

Vast trading emporiums and markets line the streets of Oran for anyone visiting the District to peruse at their leisure. To anyone visiting from elsewhere, they quickly develop an opinion that Oran is sparsely populated by traders and this view is often encouraged by the traders themselves - the under belly of forced and coerced labour is strictly off limits to anyone outside the District. The truth is that the vast bulk of the Oranian workforce and populace are hidden away underground in the many thousands of miles of underground mines, tunnels and chambers that make up its mining network.

It is also common for Oran construction crews and mining teams to be paid by other Districts to construct elaborate underground bunkers and extensions to their own mines as the District has the most extensive experience with mining in all conditions found beneath the surface and their mines are notoriously resistant to cave-ins and collapses.

The Power of Trade

Strife comes easy to the mining families of Oran - they are seen as vital to the wellbeing of the District because the weaker families are purged, leaving only the strong to survive.

Warfare between families within the District aren't always bloody affairs involving armed Mechs, other times, it is simply a war of output - whichever family can mine the most ore and refine the most materials will win the war of production, growing prosperous and rich whilst their rivals are left with the spoils of the marketplace.

Supply and demand don't mean much within the District, there are always more supply than demand internally, but demand from outside the District is fierce and ever-present, allowing them to quickly sell off all the raw materials that would otherwise be sitting around in their warehouse.

As such, the richer families often have long-standing trade agreements with other Districts, with the largest buyers being District Raglor and Sheran. A great many have also forced exclusivity clauses within trade agreements, meaning that certain organisations are beholden to a specific family, until such time that another family makes a successful bid to win their business and the lucrative trade agreement.

The Guilds

Oran has a lot of internal guilds whom oversee the day to day lives of their workers and also whom also set quotas on their respective goods and services.

The Guild of Iron, for example, controls everything from the mineral extraction to smelting to the final sale of the goods through weekly and monthly quotas which are made public once a week.

Similiar Guilds exist for most raw materials, but there are a few, more far reaching Guilds whom control more than just a single resource.

The Guild of Construction, for example, is one such Guild and which has direct ties to the other Guilds which either directly or indirectly affect it's business.

District Statistics

Current Population

171,567

Founded

Y4138

Population Growth Ratio

22.581 (2158.1% increase)

Settlement Land Area

2,827.4334km2

Population Density

60.6794 pop/km

Male/Female Ratio

0.9608 m/f ratio

Population Growth

Location

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Related Timeline

Mining of the Moon BeginsY2023

Several prospective companies launch exploratory probes to start mining operations on the moon and later Mars. The first companies eventually fail in their ventures, although it does path the way for many of the key technologies needed for future space travel.

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The world's nations break down into independent city-states. Hundreds of thousands are rendered destitute and thousands more die from the collapse of existing infrastructure.

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The Great War EndsY4149.011

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